


Go Back to Start Again

by applesofthemoon



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Teen Angst, Underage Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-09-11
Packaged: 2019-07-11 05:37:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15965798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/applesofthemoon/pseuds/applesofthemoon
Summary: Jeyne is having a hard time at Homecoming. Theon makes things worse, then a little bit better.





	Go Back to Start Again

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pulling into the home stretch on Afterlife and it's Tough with a capital T, so I thought I'd dash off a modern AU Theyne ficlet for a change of pace. The title comes from [Built This Way](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgK2NvqsQig) of _Mean Girls_ fame, which is just the best thing to listen to when you're writing high school versions of your troubled faves.

She bought the dress before everything went to shit.

She remembers a Saturday spent at the mall with Sansa, drinking smoothies from Jamba Juice and browsing the Formals section at Penney’s. When she saw the dress, baby blue, with a drop waist and tulle skirt, she knew right away it was the one. She sent her father a picture, but he never saw it on her in person.

She should have stayed in tonight. Sansa would have understood. But it’s been a month already, and the dress was just hanging in her closet. _Let me forget tonight,_ she prayed as Sansa zipped her up. _Let me dance and drink punch and have fun with my friends. Let me be happy again, just for a little while._

Music erupts from inside the gym as one of the doors swings open. Jeyne turns to see who’s come out, and just as soon wishes she hadn’t. She can’t think of anyone she wants to see less right now than Theon Greyjoy.

He loosens his tie, produces a pack of cigarettes, and pulls one out with his teeth. A flick of his lighter makes the tip glow red. Jeyne looks away after that, hoping he won’t notice her. He’s a senior, celebrating his last Homecoming; she’s a freshman sitting outside, alone, during her first. She _should_ be beneath his notice.

“Hey.” No such luck. “You’re Sansa’s friend, right? Jess?”

“Jeyne,” Jeyne says icily.

Theon ignores that. “She’s probably in there looking for you.”

“She has Joffrey.”

“Joffrey Baratheon?” Theon grimaces. “I hate that kid.”

Jeyne sort of hates him, too, though she’d never say so to Sansa. She got so excited when he asked her to the dance.

There was a time when being around Theon would have excited Jeyne just as much. They were never close, but he’s been friends with Robb as long as she’s been friends with Sansa, and they saw each other often as children. Theon was Jeyne’s first crush. She liked his silky black hair and charming smile. In fifth grade, she wrote him a letter confessing her feelings, only to overhear him laughing as he read it aloud to Robb.

She cried in her room for hours that night, till her face was puffy and purple. She thought her father would be mad at her for missing dinner, but when she finally came downstairs, he fixed them each a bowl of ice cream and put on _The Princess Bride._

Theon sits beside Jeyne on the concrete steps to the gym. “I heard about your dad,” he says, smoke curling out from between his lips. “Must be nice, living free. No one to boss you around.”

Jeyne stares at him. “What a horrible thing to say.” She can’t believe she ever thought she was in love with him. “You’re horrible, Theon.”

His face darkens momentarily, as if he’s about to say something really cruel. “Yeesh, sorry,” he concedes instead. “Guess I don’t know what it’s like to actually want your old man around.”

Jeyne feels like bursting into tears. Her first-ever Homecoming, and she’s sitting on the gym steps in her baby blue dress, with the jerk who humiliated her in fifth grade congratulating her on her dead father. She knew she should have stayed in tonight. 

“Want a smoke?”

Theon holds out his pack of cigarettes, showing her its lone occupant. “What?” she says. “No.” Jeyne is a good girl. Her father would have been heartbroken to catch her smoking. 

“Come on,” Theon says, smiling the smile that used to fill Jeyne’s stomach with butterflies. “Last one’s lucky.”

Reluctantly, she takes the cigarette. She’s surprised by its lightness. Teachers and public service announcements make smoking seem like such a weighty matter, but the cigarette has barely any weight to it. It’s just a roll of paper with a filter at one end.

She slots the filter between her lips, and Theon reaches out with his lighter. The first drag nearly makes her vomit. The smoke burns the back of her throat, and tears spring to her eyes. She coughs and chokes, but doesn’t actually throw up, thank God. The last thing she needs is to slink back into the dance with puke all over her dress.

The second drag is easier, and the third is almost smooth. Jeyne watches with fascination as the smoke streams from her mouth. It hangs in the air a moment, then dissolves into nothingness, leaving only its smell behind.

She looks at Theon. Beneath the smell of the cigarette smoke, she picks up a note of his cologne. It’s warm and citrusy, like the pomander balls Sansa’s mother makes every Christmas. “They’ll announce the Homecoming court in a few minutes,” Theon says, stubbing out his cigarette. “My buddy Patrek is going to run up and pants the Baratheon brat onstage.” He grins. “Best not miss it.”

Once he’s gone, Jeyne puts out her cigarette and spits to get the taste of smoke out of her mouth. Her father might have been disappointed in her, but she thinks he would have understood. She gets up, fluffs her skirt, and goes back inside.


End file.
